Fame 0.9.14 released!

Despite extraordinarily high temperatures outside, I've been able to put together this release on time. The most eye-catching feature of 0.9.14 is surely the new Dungeon Mode. I'm not going to compete with Brogue or similar games - Fame is certainly story-oriented and it will remain such. The new mode is primarily for those who need a quick glance into the game and don't want to spend hours just looking for any dungeon filled with monsters. It was a relatively small change that may produce interesting results, so why not?

Regarding the story.
I'm still working on the mines. The progress is quite slow as it's not going to be just another bunch of identical dungeon rooms. This new site is meant to be huge and complex, with every part essentially different from others (both in terms of appearance and survival strategy). Eventually it may become the main dungeon in the game, but there's so much work left!

I haven't forgotten the old quests - many of them have been reworked and are now (hopefully) less annoying and perhaps a little more challenging.

There were a couple of important improvements in monster AI and general behavior. Most notably, neutral creatures are no longer obstacles to the player character and will gracefully step out of his way when pushed (unless they are guards!). Guards will from now on return to their post instead of chasing the intruder forever. Neutral monsters will move randomly rather than stand still if they don't have anything better to do. Undead companions will now automatically select the next target to attack. All intelligent creatures will attempt to pick up and use items (just as in previous versions), but now the effect of drinking various potions will be more coherent - meaning that you may expect similar results for monsters as for the player character. Last, but not least - now you are able to hear some monsters present in the current locations before you approach them, so that sometimes you can prepare for the encounter or just avoid it.

Apart from all that stuff, there are two big things happening behind the scenes. One is that monsters and NPCs slowly but steadily gain features that were previously available only for the player character. When that is done, the game will get much more complex and interesting, but there is way too much work to complete in a single release. The second thing is the ability of creating mods. Such functionality was available in older versions of Fame, but it 'disappeared' as I decided to distibute all the important data files in single 'archive' file. To restore that functionality is a huge task and once again it cannot be done in just one release, so I will do it in several steps, most likely one step per game version.

Quick summary:

• Dungeon Mode
• new levels in the Mine
• improved monster AI and general behavior
• improved starting quests

Full change log:

• new game mode: Dungeon Mode
• new dungeon branch in the New Mine
• improved a couple of 'starting' quests
• new rules for altering the align
• monsters can (and will!) drink all kinds of potions, mostly with identical effect as if the player character did it
• the key to the Large Dungeon must now be obtained through a quest
• two more items can be constructed by player
• the dungeon under Yveira's basement is now randomly generated
• undead companions now attack hero's enemies automatically
• hero can sometimes hear monsters present in the location
• pushing a neutral creature causes it to move; Shift + direction can be used to attack a neutral or friendly creature; removed the 'swap' command
• weapon skills now significantly affect chance to hit during combat
• newly added locations are from now on available also in old saved games
• guards now have their 'favorite' post where they return after a fight
• lunatics are no longer hostile towards the hero (until attacked)
• neutral monsters now wander randomly if they don't have any target to attack
• improved tips in the Character Creation window
• ASCII mode for 'Hall of Fame' and 'Statistics' windows
• the key Shift must be used instead of Ctrl to move into an open door
• the 'Load Game' window now displays version number even for non-supported save versions (and '???' for corrupted files)
• Shift is not displayed in keybindings containing a printable, non-letter character
• [editor] big objects consisting of any number of tiles are now properly inserted
• [editor] the 'big objects' group on the toolbar now contains only valid objects
• [bugfix] trapped Black Tower door (and other traps near the map edge) no longer crash the game
• [bugfix] staircases in caves no longer get overwritten by other objects
• [bugfix] the entrance to the Forest Dungeon no longer mysteriously disappear
• [bugfix] fleeing monsters following the hero into another location no longer crash the game
• [bugfix] certain artifacts no longer fail to appear in the statistics
• [bugfix] Quest Log no longer blocks keyboard after being closed by pressing [Q] while in details mode
• [bugfix] keyboard shortcuts firing skills in the Skill Window work properly again
• [bugfix] landmines left on a special cell (e.g. in a special room regenerating HP) no longer fail to explode
• [bugfix] the 'easy aim' item bonus is no longer displayed twice

Saved games from versions 0.9.9 to 0.9.13 are still compatible with 0.9.14.

Have fun!

[Neo Galaxy]

The changelog in Linux files doesn't include changes to version 0.9.14.

Sorry for my bad English.

[Piotr Bednaruk]

You are right, my bad. That's because my Linux script doesn't check if the change log has been updated, unlike the Windows script. Luckily, there's a full change log above :-).